Sultan of the Throne
of Guidance, the Favored of the
Almighty God, Sheikh Abu Ali
Roodbari. His respectable name
Ahmad son of Mohammad bin
Abul-Qasem. He was originally
from Roodbar[1] in the province of Isfahan, grew
up in Baghdad and was son of a
minister. In the Nafahat ul Uns[2] His Holiness is known from the
rank of the fourth[3]. His Holiness was a pupil of
Taghlib in literature and in
narration was pupil of Ibrahim
al Jaree and in religious
jurisprudence was pupil of Abu
Al Abbas Bin Sareej and in
Sufism (Tariqah) was disciple
and devotee of His Holiness
Junaid Baghdadi and was
spiritual guide of Sheikh Abu
Ali Katib.

It is said, one day
His Holiness Junaid was
preaching in a majlis (Sufi
assembly) Abu Ali’s way crossed
Junaid’s majlis, at that time,
Junaid was saying to a man: O!
you listen Abu Ali thought that
he was addressing him, stood to
listen. Junaid’s words set in
his heart and impressed
necessary effects, at that very
time abandoned whatever was
within his heart and approached
towards tarighah.

His Holiness
conversed with many Sheikhs,
among them were Sheikh Abu Al
Hassan Noori and Abu Hamzeh
Khorasani and Abu Hojreh
Mohammad bin Ibrahim Baghdadi
and Abubakr Qatifee and Abu Amr
Dameshqi. He obtained total
training and spiritual
perfection from the sacred
breath of His Holiness Junaid
and finally attained to be the
vicegerent and successor of His
Holiness and after him was
established on the throne of
guidance. For some time in
Baghdad was occupied in the duty
of guiding worshippers and
towards the end of his life went
to Egypt and in that country
between the years 320 to 323
Hijri (932 to 935 AD) passed
away. His Holiness’ age has not
been cited, as his date of birth
has not been recorded in Tazkira
books (biographies). The period
of his authority on the throne
of guidance was approximately
for twenty four years. His
vicegerent and successor is
Sheikh Abu Ali Katib.

Contemporaries of His
Holiness from Sheikhs and
Mystics:

1) Sheikh Abol Hassan
Nouri

2) Abu Hamzeh
Khorasani

3) Sheikh Abol Qasem
Nasrabadi

4) Abu Bakr Qatifee

5) Abol Hassan
Siyouti

From the four
delegates (deputies):

1) Abu Jaffer
Mohammad Bin Osman

2) Abol Qasem Hossein
Bin Ruh

From Religious
authorities and jurists:

1) Taqlab Nahvi

2) Abu Al Abbas Bin
Sareej

From Caliphs:

1) Al Moktafee Billah

2) Mohammad Bin
Motazid

3) Al Moqtader Billah
Abbasi

From Amirs:

1) Ahmad Bin Amir
Ismael Samani

2) Nasr Bin Ahmad Bin
Ismael Samani

Some
brief sayings of His Holiness

The most sever
prisons is to associate with a
opposite persons. And also said:
Excessive speech over deeds is a
deficiency and excess of deeds
over speech is generosity. And
also said: The sign of God
turning away from his servant is
to leave the servant to be
engaged with something which is
not beneficial to him. And said:
If a disciple whines from five
days of hunger, he should be
sent to the marketplace to beg.
And said: Sufism is the
attribute of proximity after the
gloom of remoteness. And said:
Fear and hope are two wings of
bird, and when the bird stands,
wings also stand and since if
one wing is deficient the other
wing will also be impaired. And
when man does not have the both,
he is in the rank of polytheism.
And said: the truth of fear is
that besides God the Almighty,
not to fear another except Him.
And said: The Almighty God loves
those who are endowed with
magnanimity and those endowed
with magnanimity love Him.

And said that just as
the Almighty God on the Prophets
has made it a religious duty to
manifest miracles; for the
Saints made it a duty to conceal
positions and conditions so that
the eyes of strangers not to
fall on them and no one sees and
knows them. Said: when the heart
becomes empty from the loves of
this world and headship in him
wisdom manifests and the self
restrains servitude and
contemplation from the spirit
and after these three, a thing
is manifested: see His creatures
and know His throne and acting
His delicateness. And said: A
servant is not empty of four
egos, either blessings which
bring about gratitude, or
calamity which brings about His
remembrance, or hardships which
brings about benefits, or
wrongdoings which brings about
forgiveness. And said for
everything there is a moralizer
and the moralizer of the heart
is humility.

During death,
Sheikh’s head was in the lap of
his sister. Opened his eyes and
said: they opened doors of
paradise and ornamented the
heavens, so to manifest on me.
The angels proclaim, we will
take you to a position that has
not ever passed in your
thinking, but the heart says, I
swear by your truth that, I
shall not glance at anyone else
besides you. We have been
waiting since lifelong time, and
don’t have the means to return
back and will by small donation.

Brief account of His
Holiness’s generosities:

Said when a dervish
was supplicating and died, we
were burying him when I wanted
to put the shroud aside from his
face and lay his face on the
ground so that the Almighty God
may have mercy on his
loneliness, opened his eyes and
said: Do you see me humble in
front of Him who made me dear? I
said: O' son of man, after death
are you alive? Said: Yes, I am
alive and the friends of God are
alive and I shall O’ Roodbari
help you.

One time was at the seaside and with obsession
used to make ablution, the wind
blew and hands and legs chapped
and blood started oozing. He
became unable and said: God
exempt me. Proclaimed that,
blessings is in knowledge (of
Shariah) and affliction of the
hands and feet being chapped was
because of obsession that has
not been commanded in Shariah.
That very moment went to the
public bath house, in the
clothes room his eyes fell on a
patched cloth, thought that from
the dervishes who is in the bath
house, when entered, saw a
dervish standing at the service
of a rich young Amir. Said
nothing, since the young man
stood up, the dervish poured
water on him and washed him and
since he performed ablution,
brought a dry towel to dry him.
The young man went out of the
bath area, and dervish also went
after him, Sheikh thus was being
a spectator. The dervish put on
the clothes of the young man,
sprinkled rose water on him and
burned incense. Took a fan and
started fanning him, brought him
mirror, whatever services he
performed, the young man surely
did not pay any heed, got up to
go out. The dervish patience
reached the end, said: O young
man what should I do you so pay
attention to me. Said: die and
relieve yourself so I will look
at you. The dervish fell down
and died and the young man went
out. Abu Ali said: the dervish
was taken to the Khaneghah and
was shrouded and buried. After
sometime Sheikh went to Hajj saw
that young man is in the desert
while wearing patched clothes.
Said: Are you not the same young
man who killed the dervish?
Said: I am. O' Sheikh, that was
a mistake I did. Sheikh said:
How did you come here? Said:
that night when I went to sleep,
saw the dervish in my dream who
said: you asked me to die and
did not pay heed to me. I woke
up and repented and went on his
grave, shaved my head and wore
patched clothes.

[1]His Eminence Shirvan
has written in
Bustan-o-Siyahe: Roodbar
of Isfahan alongside of
Zendehroud and Sheikh
Abu Ali who is one of
the Sheikhs of a
distinguished Spiritual
Order was from the same
place and in that
village, which is famous
by the name Bu Ali
village is buried and
that is from the
villages of Lanjan).

[2]Biographies of notable figures of the
Spiritual path written
by Jami.

[3]
Quadraple classes is a
term used by wayfarer.
These classes includes:
1)Class of Ring's
Companions 2) Servitors
of Ring's Companions 3)
Servitors of Servitors
of the Ring's Companions
4) Others.